Yesterday, in a shocking turn of events, Tyler “Ninja” Blevins announced he’s leaving game streaming service Twitch for Mixer. The multimillionaire who grew to fame through gaming sensation Fortnite shared an extremely vague statement in a tongue-in-check tongue-in-cheek video.

I know this may come as a shock to many of you, but as of today, I will be streaming exclusively on Mixer. I feel like this is a really good chance to get back in touch with my roots and really remember why I fell in love with streaming in the first place.

He hasn’t offered any details on how shifting to Microsoft’s less popular game streaming platform will help him get back “in touch with his roots.” According to StreamElements, Mixer only holds three percent of all watched livestreaming hours, whereas Twitch commands 72 percent.

The most likely reason for the switch is obviously money. Kotaku wrote that a source claimed that Mixer offered deals exceeding $1 million to streamers who would use their platform. An exclusive agreement with Ninja was likely much, much more expensive than that. 

Ninja is essentially the face of Twitch, and reportedly earned more than $10 million in 2018. The risk of moving to a less successful game streaming platform was likely offset by a very large check. We’re sure to learn more in the coming days. This is a big move by Microsoft and will likely make the game streaming industry far more competitive.